The consortium led by Tony Lynam and fronted by Matt Le Tissier has withdrawn from the race to assume control at St Mary’s after failing to secure assurances from the Football League over further points deductions.

Le Tissier told Sky Sports News “We had actually spoken to the backers and talked them into accepting the 10 point deduction and getting on with things, but there were other issues that came up and issues we were only aware of after we had signed the exclusivity agreement. From that point of view, the backers have taken a stance that they are not willing under the terms on offer to put the money in.”

The news will come as a major embarrassment to both Le Tissier and Lynam, both of whom had been adamant that a deal would be completed by Tuesday this week, and only adds to the belief among a number of fans that, since the exclusivity period was gained, the money’s never been there in the first place.

It is widely accepted that the deposit they paid for the exclusivity rights was composed of the first payment from Swansea City for the signing of Nathan Dyer and former chairman Leon Crouch writing a cheque for the remainder - possibly in exchange for a seat on the new board.

Then, after administrator Mark Fry requested that one of the backers went public, we had the Fialka Fiasco, with simple searches of public data finding that Michael Fialka, who had been paraded on Sky Sports News as a multi-millionaire, couldn’t possibly have that sort of wealth. Lynam back-tracked and claimed he was fronting a group of investors, rather than being the money man himself.

Fry has said he “wasn’t surprised” that the Pinnacle group withdrew their offer, which only begs the question as to why he continued to entertain them for so long rather than pursuing other angles. Alarm bells should have been ringing as soon as they were unable to put up the £500k deposit nearly six weeks ago, and we now find ourselves in a position of pure desperation.

A number of contracts expired yesterday including those of club captain and player of the season Kelvin Davis, who now seems set to sign for West Ham on a free transfer, and current head coach Mark Wotte and the majority of his backroom staff. Only reserve team coach Stewart Henderson remains from the coaching team.

The original deadline set by Fry last week of this Friday for a deal to be concluded may, however, be extended slightly after the sale of David McGoldrick to Nottingham Forest for £1m, which should keep the wolves from the door for another month or so. However, it seems hard to believe that the club can carry on for that long under these circumstances given that the season starts in a month’s time, and indeed we have a home game against Ajax in just over two weeks’ time - tickets for which haven’t yet gone on sale. Season tickets also remain elusive.

When Bournemouth were in administration this time last year, they continued to take money from supporters for season and match tickets but funnelled the money into an account that was unconnected with the football club, the contents of which were then released to the club once the takeover was completed. I see no reason why we can’t do the same, and I’m surprised and slightly disappointed that this doesn’t appear to have been explored.

Of course it could be that in a week’s time we don’t have a club to support, but in those circumstances the money would surely be able to be refunded.

All of this leaves the Swiss group, who nobody seems to know anything about, as the supposed front-runners, although there have also been rumours of Red Bull, based in Austria, being interested - Southampton Red Bulls would be a lot easier to stomach than having no club at all, that’s for sure…